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Micah Sterling

American politician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ3915857 ↗
Source-derived summary

Micah Sterling (November 5, 1784 – April 11, 1844) was an American lawyer and politician from New York.

Life

Sterling graduated from Yale College in 1804. Then he studied law at Litchfield Law School, was admitted to the bar in 1809, and commenced practice in Adams, New York, but the same year removed to Watertown and continued the practice of law there. He married Betsey Bronson (1795–1831), and they had five children of whom only John C. Sterling (1820–1903) survived infancy.

Micah Sterling was Treasurer of the Village of Watertown in 1816, and was a director of the Jefferson County Bank. He was elected as a Federalist to the 17th United States Congress, holding office from December 3, 1821, to March 3, 1823. Afterwards he resumed the practice of law.

After the death of his first wife, he married Ruth Benedict (1801–1870), and their son was Lewis Benedict Sterling (1836–1899). Micah Sterling was a member of the New York State Senate (5th D.) from 1836 to 1839, sitting in the 59th, 60th, 61st and 62nd New York State Legislatures.

He died of scarlet fever on April 11, 1844, the same day as Egbert Ten Eyck who had succeeded him in Congress, and both were buried at the Brookside Cemetery in Watertown.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Micah Sterling” as american politician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Micah, Sterling and American.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1784, 1844, 1804, 1809—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1784-11-05. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Micah, Sterling and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Micah Sterling”, the useful work is to connect “american politician” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3915857. VIAF identifies the subject as 50757050. The Library of Congress control number is n87912769. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1784, 1844, 1804 and 1809.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Micah Sterling”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Micah Sterling primary sources, Micah Sterling archive and Micah research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Micah Sterling” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.